1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication device, such as a personal computer, a portable phone and a PDA, equipped with a means for transferring data via a public network and a means for transferring data locally instead of using the public network.
2. Related Background Art
With the advent of the Internet, mails can be exchanged and information can be obtained by accessing Web sites. From this reason, personal computers (hereinafter called a PC) with a public network connection function are prevailing.
Some wireless phones can provide a text mail function and a simple Web browser function. Recently, phone services compatible with the Internet standard protocols are commercially available. It is expected that wireless phones will prevail which have the functions similar to an e-mail function and a Web access function implemented in a PC.
A large amount of image data is used by e-mails and Web sites. Generally, image data to be transferred is taken with a scanner or a digital still camera and loaded in a PC and thereafter, it is appended to an e-mail or uploaded to a home page. In loading image data, a dedicated digital interface, a universal serial bus (USB) and the like are used conventionally. In order to avoid cumbersome cable connections, a local wireless interface for locally transferring data in a wireless manner is now studied instead of using cables.
Image data taken with an imaging device such as a digital still camera is loaded in a PC or a communication device having a public network connection function such as a portable phone, and thereafter transferred to a desired site. In this case, the digital camera automatically generates the file name of image data independently from the contents of the image. Therefore, the receiver of the image data via the public network cannot infer the contents of the image from the file name of image data.
The file name of image data taken with an imaging device is automatically given by an imaging device. This file name is generated in accordance with a number automatically assigned by the imaging device. Image data is stored in a removable memory of the imaging device in correspondence with the file names having the file structure such as shown in FIG. 4.
When the receiver stores the image data, it is necessary for the receiver to change the file name to the file name suitable for the contents of the image, or to the file name from which the image contents can be intuitively inferred.